Calculating Snow Avalanche Impact on a Fixed Obstacle

• Main Authors: Gongadge,D. N., Papinashvili,L. K.
• Other Authors: COLD REGIONS RESEARCH AND ENGINEERING LAB HANOVER N H
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1971
• Subjects: Snow; Ice and Permafrost; Structural Engineering and Building Technology; (*AVALANCHES; IMPACT SHOCK); (*STRUCTURES; PROTECTION); LOADS(FORCES); PRESSURE; VELOCITY; DENSITY; EQUATIONS OF MOTION; MOUNTAINS; DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS; USSR; *CAUCASUS MOUNTAINS; SNOWSTORMS; TRANSLATIONS; Ice; permafrost
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/AD0720069; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=AD0720069

The question of the protection of engineering structures from the impact of snow avalanches has long been at the center of attention of civil engineers working in the mountainous regions. A formula was proposed in 1938 for the computation of the pressure caused by the impact of a snow avalanche on a fixed obstacle. The maximal impact force (with maximal snow depth from 3 to 5 meters) depends primarily on the length of the avalanche course and the steepness of the terrain. Therefore it is advisable to build anti-avalanche structures in the upper portion of the mountain system where the path traversed cannot be very great. Trans. of Akademiya Nauk Gruzinskoi SSR, Tiflis. Soobscheniya, v16 n6 p437-442 1955.